1) Nice Riddick pun. 2) Good stuff, but it didn't sell for me because of the shadow direction not matching the light source. Just couldn't un-see it. Could probably be solved with a second light aimed toward the 6 o'clock of the airsoft and lowering the brightness of the lights so they equal the total desired brightness. P.s. Recoil. That may have helped too.
10:20 Sam might not like himself when he loses his cool, but it's nice to see that he cares that much about the shot. It's what sets him apart, he is his own worst critic and he uses that voice to improve his skills
Someone else mentioned it already, but creating a peripheral that attaches to the muzzle to create a localized light source would make an even better, faithful effect than a nearby lamp flash. But the end result for this effort is still a cool prospect and exercise. Hope it evolves into something useful and practical on a wider scale.
It already exists sort've, there are LED silencers for airsoft guns that spray a cloud of vapor and then light it up to simulate a muzzle flash, ofcourse you dont always want a silencer on your gun but the tech exists an i would love to see that added to this
@@zARCADEz Yea that makes a ton of sense to just rig the gun trigger to light up an LED near the muzzle. But it would have to hold up visually close up
@@cbjewelz the trick would be to shoot something like vape smoke down a barrel with some kind of easy to set up flash lamp or LED. The difficult bit is to get it to work without too much smoke, or the barrel just being a flashlight.
It would no doubt be a more complex setup, and may have some constraints like the actor needing to wear a battery hidden on their person to power the light. But you could be much more free in terms of the types of scenes. Multiple shooters from multiple angles on screen at the same time would be a non-issue.
very cool! Just an FYI there is a product that already exists that is much better for your needs. They are called "non guns" and fire what are essentially quieter cap gun caps. Tons and tons of great options that are identical looking to real guns. Easy to rent if you are in LA. Brighter muzzle flash than a real gun. Lots of the industry is moving in this direction.
The risk of injury is low and death is basically zero (infinitely safer than a blank in a real gun). I’d feel safer having a non-gun fired at me 2ft away than carrying a 60lb camera package up a ladder. Plus there is literally no way to get as cool looking a muzzle flash without shooting a real blank. I’ve used them on 3 shoots and am never going back to blanks or CG.
The non-guns from ISS do this, yes... but are more expensive to rent than most airsoft gas guns are to buy, and they also often don't have moving parts (slide, bolt, etc.) the way real ones do.
My only complaint if any at all is that the light doesn’t appear to be coming from the muzzle flash itself. I don’t know if I see it that way because I know how it’s made or because it looks like that but in general it looks like it isn’t coming from the gun. Either way it’s really cool what you guys are doing here
Totally valid complaint! Next step would be to rig up an easily portable light on a stick for someone to hold in front of the gun when needed, but I decided to save that step for when we make GRAYMATTER 2. -N
@@CorridorCrew or do a bit of planning ahead; place multiple lights at the right spots. You already have the micro controller, the rest is a bit of programming to trigger each light in the right order.
You have to get a sense of how the first piece of tech works before you know how to refine and build upon it. If you don’t make anything with it, you won’t actually know how it looks. Plus, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good means you’ll never get around to making *anything* .
If Niko would like to have a new hobby, then there's a ton of things that could've been done there. With multiple guns there could be couple of things to do with more light sources. Instead of noise, he could use contact switch attached to trigger for non automatic weapon. For shots from afar he could have gyro attached to a gun, and based on direction he would face, he could pick one from few light sources (might be too expensive in terms of light sources, and how much work they would have to put into it).
Can we just appreciate the fact that Sam and Niko where childhood buddy's that had a hobby, then went on to create a hugely successfull business together and they're still friends. You guys are an example! ❤
Yeah, they must really like each other. A few years ago I started a business with a friend that I liked a lot, and now we haven't spoken in 6 years because the business went south. They should consider themselves lucky to still have each other after so many years.
Do you guys know of Scott Prop and Roll? They made a muzzle flash attachment for airsoft too. Coupled with your project it could be all practical! Their video is called Prop Guns: How We Use Airsoft in Movies and TV. A collab with them would be cool!
Sam doesn't make mistakes. I could tell he was just acting the part when he was getting mad. Acting could use some work, but luckily that is the only thing he needs to work on. A perfect specimen. :D
4:11 I love how Niko literally used his VFX brain to solve the issue. How do you figure out where your VFX is breaking? Start from the bottom and start walking up your layers til you identify the problem. So cool.
You guys should look at the slow-mo scene from the 2012 movie Killing Them Softly. They did something similar. Here’s the explanation from an American Cinematographer article: "The filmmakers did make extensive use of the Phantom Flex for another nighttime attack, Jackie’s car-to-car shooting of Markie. This sequence inspired one of the more unusual lighting effects designed for the production: a remote-trigger LED gunshot effect, which Fraser’s crew created in close collaboration with Al DeMayo and Lee Parker at LiteGear. “The LED gunshot effect was originally designed for the scene in which Jackie shoots Markie, but when we talked to Al and Lee about engineering the effect processor, we asked them to make something that would be universally applicable,” recalls Bott. “The effect was actuated by a Piezo trigger attached to the grip of the gun, and the trigger was tuned by the LiteGear effects processor to respond to the vibration of the hammer striking the firing pin. By attaching the Piezo trigger to the handle and having the sensor remotely tuned, we had the flexibility to use the effect with whichever firearm was used in the close-up. It was intended to be enhanced in post, and was conceived in part as a visual-effects reference."
Great! Now you could bypass the sound input as a trigger and rig inside the gun (maybe inside the clip) a radio transmitter launched by the gun trigger. So then no accidental sound in the scene make a flash, only the gun. Yes, you can send me a Simpsons tee for this great idea.
Wireless signals, radio, bluetooth, or otherwise, would just add additional latency into the system, albiet small. A better option would be to have a speaker in/on the gun that emits a specific frequency as a beep, and tune the pick-up microphone for that specific frequency.
@@happzy I recommend looking into it. There's still lots of gunplay but the original vision was a fair bit different from what we got on screen. It was much more like that scene in the dark and the bit with the trainees doing the tai-chi looking stuff. What we got was still fun but I would have liked to see the original plan given form.
It was for sure intended to invoke it, if not a direct sample (I've watched that special innumerable times, it sounded a bit off, but I caught it nonetheless).
It's a reference to amazon and it's a very specific piece of music, the synths and the claps match pretty much perfectly so I guess it's intentional, even if the pitch doesn't exactly match
Yall should check out the BTS of the new The Penguin episode on Max! They used something they called “flash guns” that look like regular guns but have a big flash that’s triggered when they pull the trigger! Just finished watching the episode and watching the bts I thought of this video!
why would you need the light to turn on and off with a sound? you are pulling a trigger, just have the light and sound both trigger, when you pull the trigger
Wiring up to the trigger requires inventing some sort of wireless unit, as well as having to use a specially rigged gun. With my method you can use any Airsoft gun at any time, no setup needed. -N
@@CorridorCrew makes a lot of sense for something off the fly like this, didnt think about multiple guns with 1 rig if you were scaling it up to a full scale movie budget i feel youd 100% want the specially rigged guns, if only to make sure the light comes from the end of the gun the one shot where you fire the smg then spin round and fire the pistol, because the light is coming from above the pistol shot is lit weirdly compared to all the others, that one shot is the only one which looks at all "off", and on a larger budget youd probably have multiple rigs to make sure every shot has a flash from the correct spot
@@CorridorCrew The trigger doesn't have to be in the gun, it can be taped or otherwise attached to the performer (trigger finger pressure, often tuned to a sudden change looking for the trigger break), with the RF flash trigger hidden like a mic pack on the performer. RF flash/strobe triggers exist already. Sound is cheaper for multiple performers, but you really need to tune it well to reliably trigger on the right sound characteristics otherwise the flash/strobe triggers with other events in the scene like performers movement or other sounds that are hard to prevent with a simple decibel threshold (eg: shooting in an uncontrolled environment like outside or live theatre performance). Commercial sound based flash/strobe triggers are available if you want a more reliable/weatherproof solution.
@@CorridorCrew Yeah, wireless unit is a huge increase in complexity (and therefore jank and potential failure points), however, the sound sensor solution has its downsides too, as it can't be in the frame and therefore the light it produces doesn't really look like it is coming from the _muzzle._
This is awesome 👏💡👏💡👏💡 Now the next step for the ‘AutoMuzzleFlash’ is to design a PCB to solder all the components to and house it in a 3D printed enclosure
@@pathologicaldoubt eh sort of but maybe not. right now it has the problem of noticeable delay, and it's a hacked together prototype. big difference between that and a production ready design.
search "sound flash trigger". They've been a thing for a long time, just need one that auto-resets, many are designed for a single trigger event because they're meant for high speed photography. They range from AU$55 electronics hobbyist projects to commercial units for many lighting systems, depending on your budget. There's also RF flash triggers, that you could likely rig on the performer and integrate with a pressure switch in a glove (or taped to finger with body coloured tape/wires or trigger in an airsoft gun. There's also the "no gun" category of weapon simulators, which use a flammable gas like propane or actylene + oxygen gas to produce a visible muzzle flash, but are much safer than blanks. But those are still quite expensive. No guns can be used for pretty much everything accept extremely close range. The flashes are extremely quick flames that transfer little heat, and only produce a fairly muted pop rather than a bang.
Another alternative is the ESP32 with the ESP-NOW protocol. That way you don't have to worry about other sounds setting it off, if that's even an issue. You would have to hide an ESP32 in the gun and rig it to trigger when the gun electronics fire. It can be done with the same Arduino code. If false triggers from other sounds is not a problem then I think what you have done is perfect. It goes to show you how with Arduino you can make anything your imagination can come up with. Pretty cool.
Claude is fantastic at writing DMX. I went from not knowing how DMX works, to having a fully functional multi-channel light show with different lights on timing synced to multiple parts of music, web interface, in less than a week with a $15 USB DMX adapter. Halloween is going to be awesome.
I love that they're just casually learning C/C++ and embedded/game programming which I personally consider the "hardcore" part of software, even though they could've easily gotten someone else like Wren to do it lol
This reminds me of the live action Sorcerer's Apprentice. For the magic bolts they had the actors wear little blue LEDs in their palms to give real lighting to the scene and then just painted out the LED in post. Just like with wires, sometimes its easier to paint out the evidence of a practical effect than to put in a full effect.
Niko I think I have a great idea to bring those muzzle flashes to life. In airsoft you can aquire light flashers that thread onto standerd airsoft threaded barrels that get activated by a bb passing though them. My idea is to get a gass blowback gun and use its gass to trigger the light via moving say a peice of paper or tape in the barrel. These look insainly good and combined with the sound activated surround light you made you could get a shot that looks great in the ruff cut.
Super great concept and execution! Love watching Niko go through the problem solving phase with great editing pacing and comedic moments. Plus the Bo Burnham “Amazon” cameo was excellent 🤣
Having a confidence level of 80% is genuinely the key to getting through any engineering problem. Of course, there are times to get help, but at least having confidence to commit to trying something instead of quitting is paramount.
@@LaurieCheers Ah gotcha, I thought they meant at the beginning of the action scene they filmed, or at the beginning of the video when he's shooting, and I could not for the life of me figure out what the reference could be. Thanks for pointing it out! Haha though as far as references go, typing "It's Pitch Black in here. It's Riddickulous" in a 0.5 second cutaway gag is pretty weak sauce, like something Meet The Spartans would leave on the cutting room floor.
I haven't watched the video fully so sorry in advance if it does come up in the video. Why not use muzzle flash generator from airsoft guns, like acetech?
This is so amazing. Something similiarish was just used in hollywood. I would love to see the crew react to the behind the scenes of episode 2 of The Penguin on Max where they use a different but similiar idea to produce real muzzle light!
But the light CLEARLY looks like its coming from above it does not look right. maybe if you attached the light to the front of the gun facing you and painted it out in post (super duper easy :)
Yeah I think the effect actually looks pretty cool- but doesn't look at all like it's coming from the muzzle or anywhere near the gun. But it's partly for content and partly to come up with new cool stuff so I get why they went this way, made for an interesting build and I can see the effect being used by others to have cool lighting during battles.
And the fast response from I presume is led, is creating a stroboscope/rolling shutter effect, the light needs some decay. 100w tungsten for the win lol. ok thats maybe a tad slow but....
@@TheRandompaint army vet retired. i have, but in the context of what they are trying to achieve, it is fantastic. nothing will be the actual thing, but we they are getting closer
@@johncooke1072 for what it is, it looks good. If they had more knowledge of firearms they could make it even better. Every flash is identical to the next one which as you know doesn't happen like that. Also it looks like someone is flipping a light bulb, that strobe was lighting everything.
There is one problem with this. The flash looks like it's coming from the room, not the muzzle. What I think needs to be changed is using a single light source protruding from the muzzle of the hero prop. While the light source is not illuminated, you could just edit it out. When it does illuminate, just cover it with the flash. The light source on the hero prop could even just be a flash bulb with a color filter applied. Or, have the lighting source be directional and have the lighting guy aim the light at the actor.
There’s always a next step to improve. What they did here was incredible! I’m imagining an array of sound-reactive lights that only fire when a sensor on the actor is visible or something, so the muzzle flash always comes from the right direction. Totally doable as the next iteration.
To recommend you some animated movies/series, try the movie Mars Express (2023). It’s a French Sci-Fi and polar movie and it is refreshing and has an interesting style. They combined hand animation for humans and 3D animation for robots. By the way the budget is only 6/7 million euros. It is very refreshing especially in France where animated movies are generally made for kids. Really good pick. From the same director, there is the series Lastman. Super cool fully 2D animated series with low budget.
Love your guys content and this is going to sound like hate but yall added flashing lights and some muzzle flash vfx on the guns and called it good. Maybe i was just expecting too much from the title. Also i thought it'd be a given, but don't have the lamp pointed directly from above. Just by angling it in accordance with the gun would've given it better and more accurate room lighting than anything you could've done in post. I accept any hate for this post 🤣
Opinnion. Bullet effects look their best when you have the bullet trail with the flashes. Also might consider looking at other youtube channels for accurate depictions of muzzle flash for whatever gun your playing with. Altho i don't think this idea would transition well through different environments. After all, muzzle flash probably lookswider in the dark. Just some thoughts. I love the content and am not trying to put anyone down.
The main problem I see with this is the shadows coming from the wrong angles in the flashes. If you can make sure the light is always in front of the actor, then you have something. Not sure if you could add a light about one foot in front of the barrel and take it out in post. If not, then you need to plan the lights to be located where the gun will be pointed when the trigger is pulled.
I've seen a similar idea from a prop maker channel, but what they did there was hide an LED in the barrel or the silencer which would turn on when hit by the gas from the airsoft. I believe the gas pushed it a piece of metal towards the led's wire and close the circuit, then retract back to position when nothing pushed it, but I might be misremembering. The lit gas would take a yellow orange color and appear similar to fire.
The best would be to get this same concept into the muzzle of the gun itself like a powerful LED, it wouldn’t need to “hear” the noise either something manual would work as in pulling the trigger of the gun hits a button inside that makes the light flash for each shot.
U wont get that ambient light, and it will be too darn visible and stuff because of either hard lighting on hand or stuff or just a low light or harsh light with that light on gun thing
Next time go for GBB rifle with decent recoil feedback, modify magazine for hp bootle, instead of air fill that up with compresed fake smoke. So now you have gun recoil, working all gun mechanisms and also smoke after shotting. For lighting try to use simple bulb on muzzle end, that should give better light accuracy not only on shooter but also on entire surroundings, ofc thats add necessity of some extra work in post production. But with bulb with perfect size, shape etc its gonna be a lot more realistic.
A light would create shadows and shading that would be really obvious and uneven, with this solution as long as the camera was angled up slightly or at least leveled, it would look a lot more realistic. As for the fireworks, they would have to worry about the muzzle gas expanding problem that could hurt actors, along with the noise problem that forced them to use airsoft guns in the first place. They would also have to create entirely new props for the fireworks. So basically Fireworks: muzzle flash that could hurt actors, having to create an entire new system for the prop, and noise. Light: Shadows that would be really obvious, along with the actual bulb that they would use being a lot brighter which they would either have to edit out or it would be really obvious. Edit: I guess the lightbulb problems could be fixed with editing.
you can, there are attachments for airsoft guns that will simulate a muzzle flash.. they sense the Projectile flying out the barrel and a ring of diffused LEDs will light up.. you can rig them to work without a projectile being fired... however this Rig they made attempts to solve the bigger problem, which is the light bleed on surrounding objects and the person firing the gun created by the muzzle flash. Which you wouldn't get from a light at the end of the barrel. So while they could have used some kind of light in the barrel to help "sell" the actual muzzle flash better, This whole rig they made was created for a separate problem
Yep although they look like suppressors... And suppressors don't make big flash so not real great. I saw some small enough to seem like muzzle breaks but they are still pretty bulky. Also the LED of these devices are not strong enough to produce a realistic flash anyway.
@@bablela26 this depends on your gear. I play in an indoor field that has dark corridors like in the short film they shot. In this setting that muzzle flash can be blinding.
There actually are devices that simulate muzzle flash on gas blow back airsoft guns, they're modified tracer units that can look like suppressors. AceTech has a really good one that you can hide in most airsoft guns.
One thing that's worth mentioning is not every shot is liable to have muzzle flash. The air directly in front of the muzzle needs to have the right balance of combustible material, so it's very possible that maybe the first shot or two won't have a bright flash. You could probably use something in your rendering software that ramps the brightness and then has a randomness algorithm as to whether a shot would have a muzzle flash and how bright it would be.
Although that might be accurate, for someone like me that knows nothing about guns would look off I believe. I imagine that they want to strike a good balance between realism and hollywood (cinematic) realism. So something that looks real but also looks good on screen or that looks "real" according to what you see on screen.
Yeah but they are still much dimmer and smaller than actual muzzle flashes. They would not illuminate the room that much. Also they only look "good" if you have an actual gas airsoft (as it needs to illuminate the expelled gas). So nothing you could point and shoot close range at an actor.
Yeah I feel the same. Watched these guys for years. I think they kinda hit a wall years ago, in terms of quality and ability to produce a fresh project.. Just botherless nonsense now..
Corridor Crew Simpsons Shirt! Available for ONE WEEK only! -> corridordigital.store
Why aren't you guys directing The Division movie? WHYYYYYY??? 😯
Also, squibs. No more squibs?
Love you guys. Still have my green screen blanket after all these years!
1) Nice Riddick pun.
2) Good stuff, but it didn't sell for me because of the shadow direction not matching the light source. Just couldn't un-see it. Could probably be solved with a second light aimed toward the 6 o'clock of the airsoft and lowering the brightness of the lights so they equal the total desired brightness.
P.s. Recoil. That may have helped too.
Try this but also experiment with an airsoft Tracer - Blaster unit
you've heard of stress level zero, now get ready for confidence level eighty
I appreciate someone with deep lore knowledge
2 years of bonelab today
@@raccoonmanthingthey grow up so fast
@@im_man27i have cancer
Hi Max!
Gotta say, my confidence level is 80%
Sam predicting he'd say that every time is adorable. They're like an old married couple.
this feels like it's asking to be turned into a shirt of some kind
When NORAD says "Confidence is High!", do they mean 80%?
Tory, what is PGO?
@@dirkbester9050 81% actually
They should go back to the first ever video and re-VFX, all of it
They kinda already did
@@APerfectlyNormalLegoPerson when where
I love that idea
@@APerfectlyNormalLegoPerson when where
@@APerfectlyNormalLegoPersonapparently you are the only one here who has seen it, where is it? we all wanna see
“Confidence level 81%” is a t shirt waiting to happen btw
10:20 Sam might not like himself when he loses his cool, but it's nice to see that he cares that much about the shot. It's what sets him apart, he is his own worst critic and he uses that voice to improve his skills
I'm 81% confident this was extremely entertaining.
Someone else mentioned it already, but creating a peripheral that attaches to the muzzle to create a localized light source would make an even better, faithful effect than a nearby lamp flash. But the end result for this effort is still a cool prospect and exercise. Hope it evolves into something useful and practical on a wider scale.
Oh man imagine with refinement the kind of effects this could achieve.
It already exists sort've, there are LED silencers for airsoft guns that spray a cloud of vapor and then light it up to simulate a muzzle flash, ofcourse you dont always want a silencer on your gun but the tech exists an i would love to see that added to this
@@zARCADEz Yea that makes a ton of sense to just rig the gun trigger to light up an LED near the muzzle. But it would have to hold up visually close up
@@cbjewelz the trick would be to shoot something like vape smoke down a barrel with some kind of easy to set up flash lamp or LED. The difficult bit is to get it to work without too much smoke, or the barrel just being a flashlight.
It would no doubt be a more complex setup, and may have some constraints like the actor needing to wear a battery hidden on their person to power the light. But you could be much more free in terms of the types of scenes. Multiple shooters from multiple angles on screen at the same time would be a non-issue.
"I atleast know what to google and that's perhaps the most important step."
Holy shit.
Proceeds to not use Google.
@@augustdeer😮😮😮😅😅😊
@@augustdeer The joys of the English language, when your product becomes a verb.
@@Stormcrow_1 Verbification moment (based)
Exactly, sometimes you don't even know what it is that you don't know
very cool! Just an FYI there is a product that already exists that is much better for your needs. They are called "non guns" and fire what are essentially quieter cap gun caps. Tons and tons of great options that are identical looking to real guns. Easy to rent if you are in LA. Brighter muzzle flash than a real gun. Lots of the industry is moving in this direction.
Still has risks of injuries
Anything that causes any kind of fire or rapid gas expansion has the potential to harm people.
The risk of injury is low and death is basically zero (infinitely safer than a blank in a real gun). I’d feel safer having a non-gun fired at me 2ft away than carrying a 60lb camera package up a ladder. Plus there is literally no way to get as cool looking a muzzle flash without shooting a real blank. I’ve used them on 3 shoots and am never going back to blanks or CG.
The non-guns from ISS do this, yes... but are more expensive to rent than most airsoft gas guns are to buy, and they also often don't have moving parts (slide, bolt, etc.) the way real ones do.
7:29 Okay so now i need to see that banjo with a muzzle flare comped in!
Yeah
I like the dynamic of Sam and Niko. They should consider creating a "Sam and Niko" RUclips channel
LOL
They did. It's called Corridor
@@franzpattison yeah xD
@@franzpattison incorrect, it was the original name for the Corridor Crew channel, and my comment was a joke 😂 *whooosh*
Miss those days when they focused on Short Films instead of pumping out Reacts and paywall content T.T
My only complaint if any at all is that the light doesn’t appear to be coming from the muzzle flash itself. I don’t know if I see it that way because I know how it’s made or because it looks like that but in general it looks like it isn’t coming from the gun. Either way it’s really cool what you guys are doing here
Totally valid complaint! Next step would be to rig up an easily portable light on a stick for someone to hold in front of the gun when needed, but I decided to save that step for when we make GRAYMATTER 2. -N
@@CorridorCrew Yeah as long as it was more over the gun and also with a *much* smaller modifier so the light's harder, I think you'd be in business.
@@CorridorCrew or do a bit of planning ahead; place multiple lights at the right spots. You already have the micro controller, the rest is a bit of programming to trigger each light in the right order.
You have to get a sense of how the first piece of tech works before you know how to refine and build upon it. If you don’t make anything with it, you won’t actually know how it looks. Plus, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good means you’ll never get around to making *anything* .
If Niko would like to have a new hobby, then there's a ton of things that could've been done there.
With multiple guns there could be couple of things to do with more light sources. Instead of noise, he could use contact switch attached to trigger for non automatic weapon.
For shots from afar he could have gyro attached to a gun, and based on direction he would face, he could pick one from few light sources (might be too expensive in terms of light sources, and how much work they would have to put into it).
Can we just appreciate the fact that Sam and Niko where childhood buddy's that had a hobby, then went on to create a hugely successfull business together and they're still friends. You guys are an example! ❤
They’re like the Rhett and Link of the film industry
Yeah, they must really like each other. A few years ago I started a business with a friend that I liked a lot, and now we haven't spoken in 6 years because the business went south. They should consider themselves lucky to still have each other after so many years.
Let's not forget too that the Corridor channel has been up for more than a decade now, THEY ARE SO talented!
More like 'Sam and Niko' 😄 loved watching this channel when that's what it was called back then, still love it now.
Sam is great but my guess is Niko could work with just about anyone. Very chill guy.
Now I'm seeing doctor who references in corridor videos I'm wondering why no VFX artists react to doctor who?
Omg yes! Greta examples of janky AND excellent vfx shots
Am I wrong, but don’t sound activated lights already exist??
12:58 "Do you even use a pen tool once?
Only (3d, illustrator, Photoshop, others) artist knew that's impressive
Do you guys know of Scott Prop and Roll? They made a muzzle flash attachment for airsoft too. Coupled with your project it could be all practical! Their video is called Prop Guns: How We Use Airsoft in Movies and TV. A collab with them would be cool!
They put LEDs in the muzzle attachment and illuminated the gas to create the muzzle fire. I came to the comments to tell them about Scott as well.
Yeah I was going to say the same,
Just saw that video recently. Pretty cool 👍
First thing I thought of when watching the video
@@meatball7223 they gotta colab
Sam doesn't make mistakes. I could tell he was just acting the part when he was getting mad. Acting could use some work, but luckily that is the only thing he needs to work on. A perfect specimen. :D
they should take some acting lessons and maybe do some react videos on that. what makes the acting in some movies so awkward?
@@alienfac32I think a lot of times it can be inexperience but most importantly a lack of chemistry between the actors.
@@alienfac32 I'm in acting class and it's amazing how much the training helps give a good performance.
That goes so hard. I want one
4:11 I love how Niko literally used his VFX brain to solve the issue. How do you figure out where your VFX is breaking? Start from the bottom and start walking up your layers til you identify the problem. So cool.
To be fair, that's a problem solving approach in almost any situation with complexity, like coding or modding.
You guys should look at the slow-mo scene from the 2012 movie Killing Them Softly. They did something similar. Here’s the explanation from an American Cinematographer article:
"The filmmakers did make extensive use of the Phantom Flex for another nighttime attack, Jackie’s car-to-car shooting of Markie. This sequence inspired one of the more unusual lighting effects designed for the production: a remote-trigger LED gunshot effect, which Fraser’s crew created in close collaboration with Al DeMayo and Lee Parker at LiteGear. “The LED gunshot effect was originally designed for the scene in which Jackie shoots Markie, but when we talked to Al and Lee about engineering the effect processor, we asked them to make something that would be universally applicable,” recalls Bott. “The effect was actuated by a Piezo trigger attached to the grip of the gun, and the trigger was tuned by the LiteGear effects processor to respond to the vibration of the hammer striking the firing pin. By attaching the Piezo trigger to the handle and having the sensor remotely tuned, we had the flexibility to use the effect with whichever firearm was used in the close-up. It was intended to be enhanced in post, and was conceived in part as a visual-effects reference."
Greig Fraser. Guy's a whiz.
Ohhhh a piezo, that's so smart
I knew a film had done this, just couldn't remember which
Great! Now you could bypass the sound input as a trigger and rig inside the gun (maybe inside the clip) a radio transmitter launched by the gun trigger. So then no accidental sound in the scene make a flash, only the gun. Yes, you can send me a Simpsons tee for this great idea.
Wireless signals, radio, bluetooth, or otherwise, would just add additional latency into the system, albiet small. A better option would be to have a speaker in/on the gun that emits a specific frequency as a beep, and tune the pick-up microphone for that specific frequency.
you would have to do something to the slide too.
@@neondreams2337 I'm curious about the overall latency of the current solution as well.
You could then also have multiple guns in the same shot trigger different lights
@@neondreams2337 Sound is far slower compared to Radio... Latency would go down, if anything.
1:47 Sam still makes that expression, all the time! 🤣🤣
classic
There are muzzle flash imitators for airsoft which look very convincing. They use leds to illuminate the gas coming out a GBB gun
`Yeah that was the same thing I was thinking.... Niko could modifie it that he doesn't need to use any BBs....
8:47 "I had you straight at the barrel of the lens you cant do that on a Hollywood set"
*Alec Baldwin felt that*
0:11 There was a scene like that in Equilibrium if I remember correctly
or Riddick
Oh yes!
That was supposed to be part of the gun kata stuff that was sadly ultimately dropped from the rest of the movie.
@@chaos.corner What do you mean it was dropped? Equilibrium is full of gun katas.
@@happzy I recommend looking into it. There's still lots of gunplay but the original vision was a fair bit different from what we got on screen. It was much more like that scene in the dark and the bit with the trainees doing the tai-chi looking stuff. What we got was still fun but I would have liked to see the original plan given form.
9:27 I was thinking he'll make it in a way that the light will be coming from the gun.
2:56 is that Bezos from Bo Burnham's Inside? Sounds like it, wouldn't surprise me if its from the same sample library.
It was for sure intended to invoke it, if not a direct sample (I've watched that special innumerable times, it sounded a bit off, but I caught it nonetheless).
It's a reference to amazon and it's a very specific piece of music, the synths and the claps match pretty much perfectly so I guess it's intentional, even if the pitch doesn't exactly match
so I'm not the only one who thought of this. It really reminded me of that. Maybe...
My brain immediately went there haha
has to be, it's the song about Jeffrey Bezos/ Amazon!
"Not fire, not CGI"
that's right, we're using *live rounds.*
Yall should check out the BTS of the new The Penguin episode on Max! They used something they called “flash guns” that look like regular guns but have a big flash that’s triggered when they pull the trigger!
Just finished watching the episode and watching the bts I thought of this video!
Another movie with a cool "illuminated only by gunshots" scene is The Warrior's Way.
why would you need the light to turn on and off with a sound?
you are pulling a trigger, just have the light and sound both trigger, when you pull the trigger
Wiring up to the trigger requires inventing some sort of wireless unit, as well as having to use a specially rigged gun. With my method you can use any Airsoft gun at any time, no setup needed. -N
@@CorridorCrew makes a lot of sense for something off the fly like this, didnt think about multiple guns with 1 rig
if you were scaling it up to a full scale movie budget i feel youd 100% want the specially rigged guns, if only to make sure the light comes from the end of the gun
the one shot where you fire the smg then spin round and fire the pistol, because the light is coming from above the pistol shot is lit weirdly compared to all the others, that one shot is the only one which looks at all "off", and on a larger budget youd probably have multiple rigs to make sure every shot has a flash from the correct spot
@@CorridorCrew I appreciate you actually answer that question; thank you!
@@CorridorCrew The trigger doesn't have to be in the gun, it can be taped or otherwise attached to the performer (trigger finger pressure, often tuned to a sudden change looking for the trigger break), with the RF flash trigger hidden like a mic pack on the performer. RF flash/strobe triggers exist already. Sound is cheaper for multiple performers, but you really need to tune it well to reliably trigger on the right sound characteristics otherwise the flash/strobe triggers with other events in the scene like performers movement or other sounds that are hard to prevent with a simple decibel threshold (eg: shooting in an uncontrolled environment like outside or live theatre performance). Commercial sound based flash/strobe triggers are available if you want a more reliable/weatherproof solution.
@@CorridorCrew Yeah, wireless unit is a huge increase in complexity (and therefore jank and potential failure points), however, the sound sensor solution has its downsides too, as it can't be in the frame and therefore the light it produces doesn't really look like it is coming from the _muzzle._
i love how this videos filmed, kinda like a documentary between sam and niko
7:41 Wren is big packing in that Simpsons shirt 😂
Everyone who has done DIY light programming has run into the inevitable 3 - 5 prong moment
I thought he was going to add a light inside or on the guns, this though lets you use anything they already have though, and the and you can 9:57
2:56 Bo Burnhams Jeffrey Bezos song 😂 Great detail!
CEO ENTREPRENEUR
Glad someone else noticed it lol.
Glad someone else caught it
I believe that was Bezos I
This is awesome 👏💡👏💡👏💡
Now the next step for the ‘AutoMuzzleFlash’ is to design a PCB to solder all the components to and house it in a 3D printed enclosure
Ren playing banjo in the midst of the gunfire was amazing
this kinda vid is the reason i subbed to you guys in like 2011, great stuff fellas
I'm a film director and recently worked with blanks and ran into this problem. If you sold these I would be all over buying them!
They could easily make a lottttt of money selling these
@@pathologicaldoubt eh sort of but maybe not. right now it has the problem of noticeable delay, and it's a hacked together prototype. big difference between that and a production ready design.
@@PabloEdvardo once again, proof-of-concept. this will definitely be improved upon, at least a little by graymatter 2
search "sound flash trigger". They've been a thing for a long time, just need one that auto-resets, many are designed for a single trigger event because they're meant for high speed photography. They range from AU$55 electronics hobbyist projects to commercial units for many lighting systems, depending on your budget. There's also RF flash triggers, that you could likely rig on the performer and integrate with a pressure switch in a glove (or taped to finger with body coloured tape/wires or trigger in an airsoft gun. There's also the "no gun" category of weapon simulators, which use a flammable gas like propane or actylene + oxygen gas to produce a visible muzzle flash, but are much safer than blanks. But those are still quite expensive. No guns can be used for pretty much everything accept extremely close range. The flashes are extremely quick flames that transfer little heat, and only produce a fairly muted pop rather than a bang.
@@gracej79 sounds like for a flash and not dmx protocol
11:30 I recognize that holster sound anywhere.
2:18 I've heard about this. The signaling goes something like: Stop! Drop! Control the lights now! Open up shop!
Another alternative is the ESP32 with the ESP-NOW protocol. That way you don't have to worry about other sounds setting it off, if that's even an issue. You would have to hide an ESP32 in the gun and rig it to trigger when the gun electronics fire. It can be done with the same Arduino code.
If false triggers from other sounds is not a problem then I think what you have done is perfect. It goes to show you how with Arduino you can make anything your imagination can come up with. Pretty cool.
Since when do muzzle flashes come from above? The light direction makes no sense here guys. It's very noticeable.
Claude is fantastic at writing DMX. I went from not knowing how DMX works, to having a fully functional multi-channel light show with different lights on timing synced to multiple parts of music, web interface, in less than a week with a $15 USB DMX adapter. Halloween is going to be awesome.
So in essence what you're saying is, when it comes to DMX, Claude gon' give it to ya?
@@shinobi-no-bueno 🥁
Scott Prop and Roll here on youtube released a video a few months ago where they use some off the shelf parts a bit of tape solve this same issue.
4:57 who the threw in that Doctor Who reference 😂
Thought I was the only one who heard it aha
@@terminatorplayz4614 Nope, I heard that too..
I was just about to ask
Love Sam’s curse words setting off the muzzle flashes. Excellent work y’all! Can’t wait to see the second Grey Matter short :)
I love that they're just casually learning C/C++ and embedded/game programming which I personally consider the "hardcore" part of software, even though they could've easily gotten someone else like Wren to do it lol
Heard about this one from the podcast!
This reminds me of the live action Sorcerer's Apprentice. For the magic bolts they had the actors wear little blue LEDs in their palms to give real lighting to the scene and then just painted out the LED in post. Just like with wires, sometimes its easier to paint out the evidence of a practical effect than to put in a full effect.
Niko I think I have a great idea to bring those muzzle flashes to life. In airsoft you can aquire light flashers that thread onto standerd airsoft threaded barrels that get activated by a bb passing though them. My idea is to get a gass blowback gun and use its gass to trigger the light via moving say a peice of paper or tape in the barrel. These look insainly good and combined with the sound activated surround light you made you could get a shot that looks great in the ruff cut.
I think a youtuber/prop maker already did that
Super great concept and execution! Love watching Niko go through the problem solving phase with great editing pacing and comedic moments. Plus the Bo Burnham “Amazon” cameo was excellent 🤣
Dude, why are you making things so complicated?
There are fake guns with powerful LEDs in the muzzle to simulate the effect
Having a confidence level of 80% is genuinely the key to getting through any engineering problem. Of course, there are times to get help, but at least having confidence to commit to trying something instead of quitting is paramount.
Most people will miss it, but that Chronicles of Riddick reference in the beginning is chefs kiss!
That’s probably because there isn’t one? What reference are you talking about?
@@hanklestank The script at 0:11 (more a Pitch Black reference really.)
@@LaurieCheers Correct, specific to pitch black. All in the Riddick universe though 😁
@@LaurieCheers Ah gotcha, I thought they meant at the beginning of the action scene they filmed, or at the beginning of the video when he's shooting, and I could not for the life of me figure out what the reference could be. Thanks for pointing it out!
Haha though as far as references go, typing "It's Pitch Black in here. It's Riddickulous" in a 0.5 second cutaway gag is pretty weak sauce, like something Meet The Spartans would leave on the cutting room floor.
Podcast listeners have been waiting for this
I haven't watched the video fully so sorry in advance if it does come up in the video.
Why not use muzzle flash generator from airsoft guns, like acetech?
This is so amazing. Something similiarish was just used in hollywood. I would love to see the crew react to the behind the scenes of episode 2 of The Penguin on Max where they use a different but similiar idea to produce real muzzle light!
But the light CLEARLY looks like its coming from above it does not look right.
maybe if you attached the light to the front of the gun facing you and painted it out in post (super duper easy :)
Yeah I think the effect actually looks pretty cool- but doesn't look at all like it's coming from the muzzle or anywhere near the gun. But it's partly for content and partly to come up with new cool stuff so I get why they went this way, made for an interesting build and I can see the effect being used by others to have cool lighting during battles.
Before watching the video I thought that's what it was going to be. The light needs to be at the front of the barrel
And the fast response from I presume is led, is creating a stroboscope/rolling shutter effect, the light needs some decay. 100w tungsten for the win lol. ok thats maybe a tad slow but....
@@lezbriddon it's easier to just film at a faster framerate.
maybe having someone with the light moving it where they are aiming would help. so the light is always in front of the gun
Love the whole documentary style interviews going on. You can really tell Sam was going crazy over the idea! What a glorious specimen
the sequence at 11:58 is sold me. that pistol shot looks genuinely perfect
You don't hit the range a lot, do you? 😂
@@TheRandompaint army vet retired. i have, but in the context of what they are trying to achieve, it is fantastic. nothing will be the actual thing, but we they are getting closer
@@johncooke1072 for what it is, it looks good. If they had more knowledge of firearms they could make it even better. Every flash is identical to the next one which as you know doesn't happen like that. Also it looks like someone is flipping a light bulb, that strobe was lighting everything.
@@TheRandompaint oh yeah for sure. But I’m excited to see where it goes
There is one problem with this. The flash looks like it's coming from the room, not the muzzle. What I think needs to be changed is using a single light source protruding from the muzzle of the hero prop. While the light source is not illuminated, you could just edit it out. When it does illuminate, just cover it with the flash. The light source on the hero prop could even just be a flash bulb with a color filter applied.
Or, have the lighting source be directional and have the lighting guy aim the light at the actor.
I love the approach to covering the project. I feel that 80% so much in like... everything i do...
@7:04 Avg Engineer moment, it doesn't work for 3 days and them suddenly you figure it out
But you are not sure why
And you never know what you did to fix it, it just seemingly decides to work after taunting you
Goes down 1% absolute meltdown, goes up 2% ready to conquer the world.
11:58 My gun's so fancy, the muzzle flare comes from behind
But how dare you they are so smart and thought of everything and made it better than ever and invented AI anime too! How dare you!
@@BiscuitsMonsieur spend less time on hating
Haven't you all heard of "proof of concept"?
There’s always a next step to improve. What they did here was incredible! I’m imagining an array of sound-reactive lights that only fire when a sensor on the actor is visible or something, so the muzzle flash always comes from the right direction. Totally doable as the next iteration.
@@kmeyer78 I'm thinking it needs to be on the front of the gun
Just watched penguin BTS they made flash guns. lights in the gun hitting plastic around the muzzle. OOF 😅
Holy stuff, everything will be the intro to Equilibrium? Call me Hype, I just think it sounds cool.
To recommend you some animated movies/series, try the movie Mars Express (2023). It’s a French Sci-Fi and polar movie and it is refreshing and has an interesting style. They combined hand animation for humans and 3D animation for robots. By the way the budget is only 6/7 million euros. It is very refreshing especially in France where animated movies are generally made for kids. Really good pick. From the same director, there is the series Lastman. Super cool fully 2D animated series with low budget.
2:57 CEO entrepreneur, born in 1964
Jeffrey
Definitely not “first” but happy to be here early nonetheless.
Love your guys content and this is going to sound like hate but yall added flashing lights and some muzzle flash vfx on the guns and called it good. Maybe i was just expecting too much from the title. Also i thought it'd be a given, but don't have the lamp pointed directly from above. Just by angling it in accordance with the gun would've given it better and more accurate room lighting than anything you could've done in post.
I accept any hate for this post 🤣
Opinnion. Bullet effects look their best when you have the bullet trail with the flashes. Also might consider looking at other youtube channels for accurate depictions of muzzle flash for whatever gun your playing with. Altho i don't think this idea would transition well through different environments. After all, muzzle flash probably lookswider in the dark. Just some thoughts. I love the content and am not trying to put anyone down.
4:27 Niko got every note 🎶
I love how the viewers keep going up while I'm watching 😂
The main problem I see with this is the shadows coming from the wrong angles in the flashes. If you can make sure the light is always in front of the actor, then you have something. Not sure if you could add a light about one foot in front of the barrel and take it out in post. If not, then you need to plan the lights to be located where the gun will be pointed when the trigger is pulled.
That was also my concern. It was a cool proof of concept though. Now at least something directionally lights up the room according to a trigger.
I'm a programmer, and I'm smiling with pride when Niko actually gets the light on.
I've seen a similar idea from a prop maker channel, but what they did there was hide an LED in the barrel or the silencer which would turn on when hit by the gas from the airsoft. I believe the gas pushed it a piece of metal towards the led's wire and close the circuit, then retract back to position when nothing pushed it, but I might be misremembering. The lit gas would take a yellow orange color and appear similar to fire.
This is a game changer. I did notice at 12:00 you can tell the flash is coming from behind you on your back but overall this looks amazing
The best would be to get this same concept into the muzzle of the gun itself like a powerful LED, it wouldn’t need to “hear” the noise either something manual would work as in pulling the trigger of the gun hits a button inside that makes the light flash for each shot.
@@joek1168 If it's in the muzzle, it wouldn't illuminate the actor.
@@c4v3m4n27 if it were bright enough I bet it would similar to turning on a flashlight you’re holding in front of you
True, but this was merely a test shot, not intended as a real finished product. But that is an important detail they should keep in mind.
he legit uses a flashlight in the scene, it doesn't light up his face like the muzzle flash would.
4:57 Is that a Doctor Who reference?
>Pulls an audio clip directly from Dr Who
"iS tHiS a Dr wHo rEfeReNcE?"
A Co2 gun with yellow LED in the end to light up the gas coming out the barrel would work.
not bright enough to light up the environment which is the whole point of this video
@@pioter-ji1bo a flashlight in the palm of your hand can light up an entire building
@@pioter-ji1bo We have the technology nowadays
@@eXe09 Nope, those LEDs require thick wires and cooling blocks to keep running.
U wont get that ambient light, and it will be too darn visible and stuff because of either hard lighting on hand or stuff or just a low light or harsh light with that light on gun thing
Awesome! Couple this with the airsoft suppressors that add a smoke effect and you'll have even more of a realistic simulation!
Next time go for GBB rifle with decent recoil feedback, modify magazine for hp bootle, instead of air fill that up with compresed fake smoke. So now you have gun recoil, working all gun mechanisms and also smoke after shotting. For lighting try to use simple bulb on muzzle end, that should give better light accuracy not only on shooter but also on entire surroundings, ofc thats add necessity of some extra work in post production. But with bulb with perfect size, shape etc its gonna be a lot more realistic.
Why haven't people just tried a light in the gun? Or like fire works like those white poppers?
It has actually been done, and it looks pretty good.
A light would create shadows and shading that would be really obvious and uneven, with this solution as long as the camera was angled up slightly or at least leveled, it would look a lot more realistic.
As for the fireworks, they would have to worry about the muzzle gas expanding problem that could hurt actors, along with the noise problem that forced them to use airsoft guns in the first place. They would also have to create entirely new props for the fireworks.
So basically
Fireworks: muzzle flash that could hurt actors, having to create an entire new system for the prop, and noise.
Light: Shadows that would be really obvious, along with the actual bulb that they would use being a lot brighter which they would either have to edit out or it would be really obvious.
Edit: I guess the lightbulb problems could be fixed with editing.
you can, there are attachments for airsoft guns that will simulate a muzzle flash.. they sense the Projectile flying out the barrel and a ring of diffused LEDs will light up.. you can rig them to work without a projectile being fired... however this Rig they made attempts to solve the bigger problem, which is the light bleed on surrounding objects and the person firing the gun created by the muzzle flash. Which you wouldn't get from a light at the end of the barrel. So while they could have used some kind of light in the barrel to help "sell" the actual muzzle flash better, This whole rig they made was created for a separate problem
@@jamespetkwitz8737 I'm sure the same problem would be solved just by changing the light bulb of the rig.
Probably not that safe.
Is anyone going to talk about the fact that he used an AI chatbot to make a prototype for him, and it worked!?!?!?!
Im pretty sure you can buy airsoft muzzles that make muzzle flashes, you guys should try that sometime
Yep although they look like suppressors... And suppressors don't make big flash so not real great.
I saw some small enough to seem like muzzle breaks but they are still pretty bulky.
Also the LED of these devices are not strong enough to produce a realistic flash anyway.
@@bablela26 this depends on your gear. I play in an indoor field that has dark corridors like in the short film they shot. In this setting that muzzle flash can be blinding.
There's no shadows on the wall behind Niko. If the light was coming from the muzzle, there would be a pretty sharp shadow behind him.
There actually are devices that simulate muzzle flash on gas blow back airsoft guns, they're modified tracer units that can look like suppressors. AceTech has a really good one that you can hide in most airsoft guns.
he forgor his lunch box icant
One thing that's worth mentioning is not every shot is liable to have muzzle flash. The air directly in front of the muzzle needs to have the right balance of combustible material, so it's very possible that maybe the first shot or two won't have a bright flash. You could probably use something in your rendering software that ramps the brightness and then has a randomness algorithm as to whether a shot would have a muzzle flash and how bright it would be.
Although that might be accurate, for someone like me that knows nothing about guns would look off I believe. I imagine that they want to strike a good balance between realism and hollywood (cinematic) realism. So something that looks real but also looks good on screen or that looks "real" according to what you see on screen.
0:55 oh that's so sweet
I'm pretty sure there are already airsoft guns that simulate muzz flash on the market some place.
yes there are.
This is (kinda) why the Rebel Moon guns worked so well. They made their guns with lights in them to simulate the muzzle flashes.
attach an led on front and put a button under gun trigger
I see you don't understand how bright the light has to be? :P
@@theKiroo make it a camera flash that uses capacitors. it would be as bright as that big aputure light for a fraction of a second.
I was literally just catching up on old podcasts and I was on the second one where you were talking about this! Lol
The fake muzzle flash already exist for airsoft. Acetech make's them.
Yep, they work great - if you want the look of a can or a comp.
yeah but they mostly only light forward, what they wanted was a bright flash that lights everything.
i was wondering... I swear I remembered seeing it before (thought it was this channel).
Yeah but they are still much dimmer and smaller than actual muzzle flashes. They would not illuminate the room that much. Also they only look "good" if you have an actual gas airsoft (as it needs to illuminate the expelled gas). So nothing you could point and shoot close range at an actor.
@@Ghost-Raccoonplus you stuck with the suppressor or flash can look. Most people would assume it's a suppressor and be confused.
this kind of looks awful bruh.
Yeah I feel the same. Watched these guys for years. I think they kinda hit a wall years ago, in terms of quality and ability to produce a fresh project.. Just botherless nonsense now..